Phil Murray

Love climbing trips. especially in sunny places like Spain and KALYMNOS!! the cheap beer & wine helps too! also like weekend breaks away in the sun camping, climbing to exhaustion, drinking & sleeping! Have had to quit proper (high/glaciated) Alpine ascents now , due to health issues (see below). Still enjoy Via ferrata & days out, such as Marmolada 3342m.

LocationBristol

Best Climbing ExperienceDiscovering the joys of redpointing in 2011! Flowstone Shuffle 6b+ onsight, A55 N Wales 2010. Penon de Ifach April 2010, Direct de UBSA (NOT Diedre note!), led all pitches clean, Climbed Penyon in 1995 and again, 2006, both times dogged but still awesome. Alps easy high routes - Castor 2013 and Parrotspitze 2014 the highlights to date.... collecting 4000ers! (now given up - August 2018 - due to illness)

Shorn Cliff, July 2006. 7 pitches, including two E1 leads. Best trad day ever (took me a week to recover!)

Favourite Climbing-Related Discussion TopicWhere to go cragging! When to go! The weather! The sensible use of bolt & other fixed protection. Passionate about cragging trips. Not taking it too seriously and having a laugh even when on the sharp end. It's about having fun.

Anything Else We Should KnowI had ME or post viral/chronic syndrome 1997- 2006 and have recovered & can climb properly again! I'm not the only climber to have had this. It's not "all in the mind" and is a nasty physical affliction that also ruined my career & social life (both are also recovered). I never lost any finger strength, though ... I climbed harder than I was before I fell ill, age 52; I was 33 when i fell ill. This is good!

Note (Summer 2018) - My ME/CFS comes back when I try to do Alpine mountaineering - ruining trips in 2015, 16, and now 2018. No amount of optimism & careful planning can prevent it. So I hang up my ice axe & crampons. Age 54, it's game over. Sad about this, but at least I can choose to be well. There is nothing worse than suffering an ME/CFS relapse in the mountains - you cannot then even contemplate going up them. :-(